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I think (and this is tapping more into my spiritual journey, which I don't coach on unless the person shows interest) a reframe that might help (and I absolutely believe this), is that, especially in the western world, we are all suffering to some degree (following Buddhist teachings to a large degree).

Don't underestimate how much we are all suffering psychologically. We think that if we get all that we ever want in life that we will be fulfilled and we will never have another problem, but the mind and your psychology is the problem (not that you don't have X or Y - and here this is akin to the concept of time lost or opportunities missed out on). "Success" is a band-aid at best (the happiest people I've ever met - living in South East Asia, have very little compared to us - equally, there are people who seemingly have everything that are completely miserable). If you're the second richest person on the planet, but you're insecure about not being number 1 (which is likely given all that you would have had to give up to get to that position), you're suffering (even if on the outside this looks silly, the psychology is the same and it's real pain and hurt on the inside). If you are the richest person in the world, you're insecure and afraid of losing that title, so the pressure mounts and you're suffering. This isn't just limited to material things as well, it applies to everything we are chasing.

TMS gives us the chance and the possibility to wake up mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Say you've had chronic symptoms for 30 years - it's hard to compare suffering but say that means you suffer at an 8/10 for that period of time. If you hadn't had chronic symptoms for that time, you wouldn't have had to reflect on your psychology/emotions to this degree so you'd suffer more based on that, but you'd still have no symptoms so that needs to be taken into account. So let's put that at a 5/10.

I think it comes down to whether you believe this (and I understand if you don't), but getting down to the low numbers on that scale will blow your mind. My recovery from chronic symptoms and my emotional development I guess you could say has taken me from an 8/10 to maybe a 3/10 - but I still suffer psychologically at the 3/10 (I'm better, but there's still insecurity and there's still desire and there's still a lot of fear). I have, however, had very small periods of time where I've been in such a spiritual place where it's a 0/10 - and it's a completely different world. We don't know what it's like not to suffer. Having touched that, I refuse to believe that this isn't possible for longer periods (I'm not buying what western psychology is selling me and I am more in line now with the eastern teachings - but that's just me).

All that being said, I think the only way that 30 years at an 8/10 is worth it (and it's taking you closer to the end) is if it unlocks the possibility to get that number down really low. From my experience, if I somehow managed to stay at a 0/10 for a whole year it would feel like a well lived lifetime and it would be worth 30 years at an 8/10 (keep in mind I was going to be at a 5/10 for those 30 years without the reflection that TMS demanded anyway) - it would be priceless (1 year to 30 might sound ridiculous - but one year of a quiet mind would be extraordinary and you wouldn't know yourself - it obviously doesn't only need to be 1 because there's plenty more than that hopefully - but I still believe it at that extreme).

I appreciate that this may seem overly optimistic and others would probably try to appreciate but lessen the pain of years lost, but I truly believe that the state you could reach through this is so brilliant that it can't be compared on a year to year basis with what you've been through.

I thought I would be honest as this is an open forum - if I was coaching someone and I knew they wouldn't have a bar of this (based on our interactions I thought it might have a chance) then I'd take a more western approach (emphasising making the most of the years to come - which of course is true anyway, and processing the sadness and grief of lost years - but if we go by the above they aren't really lost they are just the journey to something greater).